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T O P I C R E V I E W

Robert Pearlman

Mission Operations Directorate (MOD) emblem

The following was sent from the Missions Operations Directorate (MOD) to the Astronaut Office on March 15, 2005. Attached was this revision to the MOD emblem originally designed by Robert McCall.

Much has been made in the days following the tragedy of February 1, 2003, of the role that "culture" played in the events leading up to that day. Here now, two years on, we have all had time to reflect on our own personal involvement, whether as an individual, member of a discipline team, a directorate, or an agency.

Sadly, we were not the first to face such self scrutiny. Gene Kranz recalled the response of a previous generation to a similar tragedy:

So this was sort of the news of the day, and it then came time for me to speak. I tend to be maybe one of the more emotional of the controllers. I believed that that's part of a leader's responsibility, to get his people pumped up, and I gave what my controllers came to know as the "tough and competent" speech, and concluded the talk identifying that the problem throughout all of our preparation for Apollo 1 was the fact that we were not tough enough; we were avoiding our responsibilities, we had not assumed the accountability we should have for what was going on during that day's test. We had the opportunity to call it all off, to say, "This isn't right. Let's shut it down," and none of us did. So basically the toughness was from that day forward we would stand for doing everything right, literally being perfect and competent.

We had become very complacent about working in a pure oxygen environment. We all knew this was dangerous. Many of us who flew aircraft knew it was extremely dangerous, but we had sort of stopped learning. We had just really taken it for granted that this was the environment, and since we had flown the Mercury and Gemini program at this 100 percent oxygen environment, everything was okay. And it wasn't. And we had let the crew literally paper the inside of the spacecraft with Velcro...

I had each member of the control team on the blackboards in their offices write "tough and competent" at the top of that blackboard, and that could never be erased until we had gotten a man on the Moon. I believe that set the framework for our work in the weeks and months that followed.

It's amazing how NASA took charge of itself in those days.

At the conclusion of the last Apollo flight, Gene asked artist Bob McCall to fashion an emblem commemorating the spirit of tireless vigilance that defined 'Mission Control' in that era. As he later described it...

'We fought and won the race in space and listened to the cries of the Apollo 1 crew. With great resolve and personal anger, we picked up the pieces, pounded them together, and went on the attack again. We were the ones in the trenches of space and with only the tools of leadership, trust, and teamwork, we contained the risks and made the conquest of space possible.'

The entire MOD team wants the Space Shuttle and Space Station Program families to know that we still aspire to the same ideal today. The unique challenge of the Space Shuttle and ISS programs has been in the long timescales through which we must maintain that vigilance.

To embrace that commitment and keep it strong, we have adopted 'vigilance' as a key fundamental quality essential to our professional excellence. Our 'vigilance' will be focused always on remaining attentive to the dangers of spaceflight, while never accepting success as a substitute for rigor in everything we do. It is joined by the other virtues that we aspire to in our work — Discipline, Competence, Confidence, Responsibility, Toughness, and Teamwork — virtues drawn from our flight control heritage.

While the blackboards are long gone, in their place we have incorporated a living memorial into the MOD emblem as a constant reminder of the 17 who have given their lives to the pursuit of the frontier. Seventeen stars now grace the background of space on the patch to help keep in the forefront of our minds the risks we are managing daily.

It is our solemn pledge to each of you that we are committed to the safety and success of our human spaceflight programs as we return the Space Shuttle to flight status and complete assembly of the International Space Station. That commitment will not wane with the passage of time and achievement.

Robert Pearlman

With the space shuttle program over and the Mission Operations Directorate (MOD) looking toward the future, the MOD emblem has been revised:

Ronpur

Nice!! I want the original one as well!

p51

Great! Hope they have patches made up for this the next time I'm at JSC next month...

Gonzo

Patches! We need patches! (And I'm STILL looking for the original Apollo version!)

Apollo 8

Originals of the original Apollo version are very hard to find, but SpaceBoosters made a nice replica.

Hart Sastrowardoyo

Geek alert: I can see how the arrowhead evolving into the Enterprise's arrowhead of the 23rd century, later to become the Starfleet symbol... as well as the basis for the triangular-shaped emblems present in the 24th century.

Robert Pearlman

Mike Okuda, who was the artist behind the 2005 revision and now this latest version as well, explains that the vector is from the Flight Directors' emblem, and it is intended to represent the fact that NASA will be flying a variety of spacecraft in the coming years.

Gonzo

I have a question about this emblem. At the start of the thread, it's noted that:

The following was sent from the Missions Operations Directorate (MOD) to the Astronaut Office on March 15, 2005. Attached was this revision to the MOD emblem originally designed by Robert McCall.

I checked my version of that patch to find that I purchased it on Feb 2, 1990 — a clear five years prior to this announcement. So my next step was to compare the one pictured from 2005 to my actual patch. There are a couple of differences. My patch lacks all of the program emblems at the bottom. It has just Mercury, Gemini and Apollo along with four stars, just like the original version. However, it does have the shuttle launching up the center. There are also three plumes coming from the shuttle, not one as the new version depicts. It also lacks the stars in the lower part of the plume.

My patch also lacks the ISS in the lower right. Instead, it has what appears to be a mapping/earth scanning satellite on the orbit instead. Mine also has the earth/sun at the top and the sun has the flares like the original. The one from 2005 has the moon and Mars.

Everything else appears to be the same with the comet in the upper right and "Mission Operations" across the center.

I guess my point in all of this is that from the patch that I have, there were more versions of this emblem (and in patch form) than what is listed in this thread. Any thoughts on the subject?

Robert Pearlman

The first version to replace the "Mission Control" banner with "Mission Operations" did replace the Saturn V with the space shuttle but left the other elements the same.

It was used between 1983 and 2004, and was produced by AB Emblem as a patch.

Gonzo

Robert - do you have an image of that version (1983-2005) that could be posted here? I can scan mine and add if you don't. The link doesn't show it.

Robert Pearlman

I'd like to find a clean version of the art (there are some rough versions online, including on SpacePatches.info) but in the meantime, AB Emblem still shows (and sells) the legacy version.

p51

I was at the Payload Operations Center at Marshall Space Flight Center recently and saw a live feed from the Mission Control Center at Johnson Space Center and the logo they were using still had the shuttle on it. I was surprised to see even Houston hasn't converted over yet...

Robert Pearlman

AB Emblem is now producing the revised MOD emblem:

As the official contractor to NASA for embroidered emblems since 1970, we are pleased to announce we will soon have available the new Mission Operations emblem. This is our design number 200710.